Tools to Monitor Your HVAC Competitors & Industry Trends
By: Will Housh
Competitive and industry research is usually one of the last things to make it to your to-do list, due to – let’s face it – lack of time. That said, the week between Christmas and New Year’s offers many HVAC business owners an opportunity to work ON the business, instead of IN it.
If you spent time planning your growth strategy for 2022 but haven’t yet analyzed HVAC industry trends or your competitors, then read on – this blog is for you.
COMPETITOR MONITORING TOOLS
At least once a quarter, it’s a good idea to do competitive research. How else will you know if your pricing is in line, if your service offerings hit the mark, or if you’re talking about things that matter to your customers?
Sprout Social did an excellent job compiling a complete list of monitoring tools that can help you keep an eye on your competitors. Below are a few tools they recommend for monitoring your competitors’ social posts, blog topics, email content, paid advertising budgets, and more:
- Spyfu
- What it monitors: you can find every place your competitors have shown up on Google: every keyword they’ve bought on Google Ads, every organic rank, and every ad variation in the last 15 years.
- How much it costs: As little as $8 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: use this data to help inform your own SEO or Paid Ad marketing strategy
- Sprout Social:
- What it monitors: social media conversations – get a sneak peek at what your competitors across their social channels and benchmark your growth against the average of the profiles being compared
- How much it costs: starts at $89 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: incorporate the topics being discussed in social media into your next blog posts or create products, pricing or promotions to be competitive with other companies in your area.
- SEM Rush:
- What it monitors: one of the most used SEO tools on the market – with it, you can pull your competitor’s backlinks and monitor changes in their Google rankings.
- How much it costs: starts at $119 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: will help you determine what keywords to target in your SEO strategy. Will also help you determine where to pitch articles or press releases offsite for quality links back to your site.
- BuzzSumo:
- What it monitors: top-performing content & relevant topics for your brand and specific competitors – looks at content engagement on your competitors’ social sites
- How much it costs: FREE or paid plans available (view pricing)
- How you can take action: this will tell you who’s killing it with industry content and also help you identify hot topics to write about on your own website.
- Similarweb:
- What it monitors: digs into competitor content and tells you where their traffic is coming from
- How much it costs: FREE and paid plans available (view pricing)
- How you can take action: you can use this to inform your own marketing plan – will help you figure out where to pitch content and also what kind of landing page to send these visitors to once they click on your article or ad.
- Feedly
- What it monitors: competitor content as new pages or blogs are published
- How much it costs: starts at $6/month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: You can see the hot topics that your competitors are covering, and use this information to inform your own content strategy and calendar.
- iSpionage
- What it monitors: analyzes PPC campaigns, including keywords targeted, budgets, etc.
- How much it costs: starts at $59 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: use this information to help you optimize your own PPC campaigns on Google – decide which keywords are worth bidding on, how much to spend per click, and more.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE 2024 HVAC INDUSTRY REPORT
Learn more about what’s going on in the HVAC industry and what it means to your business. Included is a list of tools to help you monitor and stand out from your competitors.
INDUSTRY RESEARCH TOOLS
In addition to monitoring your competitors, it’s also a good practice to do industry research every quarter. The HVAC industry is especially seasonal, so understanding the topics that are most searched online is helpful in determining what blogs you should be writing and promotions you should be running.
Luckily, there are a few popular tools, websites, and podcasts that can help you here:
-
Google Trends – this is a FREE and super useful tool for determining what topics are trending in your space. Once you see what people are searching for, you can create helpful content on your website to help them find it.
-
ACHR News – a leading digital and print magazine in the HVAC industry. It does cost money to subscribe and read full articles, but in our opinion, it’s worth the expense.
-
Air Conditioning Contractor of America (ACCA) – the national trade association furthering the interests of HVACR contracting businesses and the broader HVACR industry.
-
To the Point Home Services Podcast – the focus of this podcast is helping HVAC companies learn how to grow their companies with marketing & operational solutions
- Service Business Mastery Podcast – helps business owners and managers succeed in business by sharing tips on leadership, marketing, financials, pricing, HR and much more.
WHAT’S NEXT IN THE HVAC INDUSTRY?
More customers, more sales, more profits, and better customer satisfaction. That’s the goal of any HVAC company. The tools above can help you stay ahead of industry and competitive trends. We can help you start selling online. Online shopping is the future of the HVAC industry, and what the movers and shakers in this industry are already capitalizing on. Don’t miss the boat! Sign up for a demo today to see how Contractor Commerce can help grow your business.
Contractor Commerce™ is built by contractors, for contractors. We believe that Ecommerce is the future for contractors. Everyone shops online for products and services. It is time for contractors to offer online shopping options and benefit from this gigantic shift in consumer behavior.
We’ve already helped 500+ contractors get set up with an online store. We’d like the opportunity to help you too!
Tools to Monitor Your HVAC Competitors & Industry Trends
By: Will Housh
Competitive and industry research is usually one of the last things to make it to your to-do list, due to – let’s face it – lack of time. That said, the week between Christmas and New Year’s offers many HVAC business owners an opportunity to work ON the business, instead of IN it.
If you spent time planning your growth strategy for 2022 but haven’t yet analyzed HVAC industry trends or your competitors, then read on – this blog is for you.
COMPETITOR MONITORING TOOLS
At least once a quarter, it’s a good idea to do competitive research. How else will you know if your pricing is in line, if your service offerings hit the mark, or if you’re talking about things that matter to your customers?
Sprout Social did an excellent job compiling a complete list of monitoring tools that can help you keep an eye on your competitors. Below are a few tools they recommend for monitoring your competitors’ social posts, blog topics, email content, paid advertising budgets, and more:
- Spyfu
- What it monitors: you can find every place your competitors have shown up on Google: every keyword they’ve bought on Google Ads, every organic rank, and every ad variation in the last 15 years.
- How much it costs: As little as $8 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: use this data to help inform your own SEO or Paid Ad marketing strategy
- Sprout Social:
- What it monitors: social media conversations – get a sneak peek at what your competitors across their social channels and benchmark your growth against the average of the profiles being compared
- How much it costs: starts at $89 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: incorporate the topics being discussed in social media into your next blog posts or create products, pricing or promotions to be competitive with other companies in your area.
- SEM Rush:
- What it monitors: one of the most used SEO tools on the market – with it, you can pull your competitor’s backlinks and monitor changes in their Google rankings.
- How much it costs: starts at $119 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: will help you determine what keywords to target in your SEO strategy. Will also help you determine where to pitch articles or press releases offsite for quality links back to your site.
- BuzzSumo:
- What it monitors: top-performing content & relevant topics for your brand and specific competitors – looks at content engagement on your competitors’ social sites
- How much it costs: FREE or paid plans available (view pricing)
- How you can take action: this will tell you who’s killing it with industry content and also help you identify hot topics to write about on your own website.
- Similarweb:
- What it monitors: digs into competitor content and tells you where their traffic is coming from
- How much it costs: FREE and paid plans available (view pricing)
- How you can take action: you can use this to inform your own marketing plan – will help you figure out where to pitch content and also what kind of landing page to send these visitors to once they click on your article or ad.
- Feedly
- What it monitors: competitor content as new pages or blogs are published
- How much it costs: starts at $6/month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: You can see the hot topics that your competitors are covering, and use this information to inform your own content strategy and calendar.
- iSpionage
- What it monitors: analyzes PPC campaigns, including keywords targeted, budgets, etc.
- How much it costs: starts at $59 / month (view pricing)
- How you can take action: use this information to help you optimize your own PPC campaigns on Google – decide which keywords are worth bidding on, how much to spend per click, and more.
INDUSTRY RESEARCH TOOLS
In addition to monitoring your competitors, it’s also a good practice to do industry research every quarter. The HVAC industry is especially seasonal, so understanding the topics that are most searched online is helpful in determining what blogs you should be writing and promotions you should be running.
Luckily, there are a few popular tools, websites, and podcasts that can help you here:
-
Google Trends – this is a FREE and super useful tool for determining what topics are trending in your space. Once you see what people are searching for, you can create helpful content on your website to help them find it.
-
ACHR News – a leading digital and print magazine in the HVAC industry. It does cost money to subscribe and read full articles, but in our opinion, it’s worth the expense.
-
Air Conditioning Contractor of America (ACCA) – the national trade association furthering the interests of HVACR contracting businesses and the broader HVACR industry.
-
To the Point Home Services Podcast – the focus of this podcast is helping HVAC companies learn how to grow their companies with marketing & operational solutions
- Service Business Mastery Podcast – helps business owners and managers succeed in business by sharing tips on leadership, marketing, financials, pricing, HR and much more.
WHAT’S NEXT IN THE HVAC INDUSTRY?
More customers, more sales, more profits, and better customer satisfaction. That’s the goal of any HVAC company. The tools above can help you stay ahead of industry and competitive trends. We can help you start selling online. Online shopping is the future of the HVAC industry, and what the movers and shakers in this industry are already capitalizing on. Don’t miss the boat! Sign up for a demo today to see how Contractor Commerce can help grow your business.
Contractor Commerce™ is built by contractors, for contractors. We believe that Ecommerce is the future for contractors. Everyone shops online for products and services. It is time for contractors to offer online shopping options and benefit from this gigantic shift in consumer behavior.
We’ve already helped 500+ contractors get set up with an online store. We’d like the opportunity to help you too!
TRUSTED BY HUNDREDS OF CONTRACTORS
“It’s really easy to set up. I had an online store and was selling products within 48 hours of talking to these guys.”
Jeff K, Ductworks Heating & Air Conditioning“The Contractor Commerce team has been easy to work with and has even customized a few things to fit the needs of my business!”
Chris H, Dick Hill and Sons Heating and Cooling“We have several subscription customers already. This just means recurring revenue for us with no additional overhead or managing.”
Jason C, Advent Air ConditioningIndustry-Leading Contractors Use Contractor Commerce
“The fact is, consumers would rather shop online than in person. If you don’t build an e-commerce presence, you won’t have the opportunity. Now is the time.”
Lou Hobaica, Hobaica Services“It was scary-easy to get set up. It’s plug and play. I drive people to the site, and I collect on the backend. Contractor Commerce takes the order, processes the order, and ships it…any HVAC company would be crazy not to start an online store with Contractor Commerce.”
Bob Reilly, Courtney's Heating & Cooling“Working with the Contractor Commerce team is simple. It’s great. They’re understanding, and they will do anything possible in their power to accommodate your needs. It’s an added service for us…it’s good for our customers”
Jeremy Shellabarger, Airtron Heating & Air Conditioning“Having our website store powered by Contractor Commerce gives us a unique competitive advantage in our market. Our friends in the industry look at our website and say, ‘Wow! That’s super cool. I don’t know why my company isn’t doing this.”
Lizeth Melisa, Comfort Pro“Having an online store from Contractor Commerce is great for our customers! It is convenient and easy for customers to order filters. It saves time when they can go right to the website, place their order and have the filter delivered within a couple of days. Plus, the Contractor Commerce team is great to work with. They are very responsive and helpful and I know they really care about my success!”
Karen B, Liberty Comfort Systems“It’s really easy to set up. I had an online store and was selling products within 48 hours of talking to these guys.”
Jeff K, Ductworks Heating & Air Conditioning“The Contractor Commerce team has been easy to work with and has even customized a few things to fit the needs of my business!”
Chris H, Dick Hill and Sons Heating and Cooling“We have several subscription customers already. This just means recurring revenue for us with no additional overhead or managing.”
Jason C, Advent Air Conditioning